It was a clear night as David of old gazed up into the sky. The stars were shining in all their brilliance and the moon reflected the glory of the sun. So Psalm 8 takes up the theme begun in Genesis I. The majesty of God and the insignificance of man were revealed. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.”
The universe seen in the night sky is something awe-inspiring, almost frightening in its immensity. But it is only part of the tremendous creation which in the beginning was dark; thick darkness covering the watery chaotic mass as a heavy, black cloth covers the coffin of a dead man. It wasn’t alive and there wasn’t any possibility of life. It was inert. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Fortunately this state of affairs did not remain, for the record goes on: “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water.” God’s power moved or hovered like the wings of a bird outstretched to protect her young. God was watching, and then God said:
“Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1:2-4).
Thus the change from chaos to an organized world was commenced by a divine word. Genesis doesn’t aim at being a geology textbook, but rather a book about God. In Genesis and the rest of the Bible, God reveals His mind, His will and purpose for human beings to try and understand. It is a record of purpose, not just of events isolated in their historical situation.
Genesis 1 states that at a point in time, God spoke and His words resulted in the cessation of chaos. He spoke and it was done. He brought order out of chaos, light out of darkness and life from barrenness.
The word of God becomes the will of God in action, the mind of the Creator brought into reality. This was seen in the establishment of light where darkness had been previously. And God saw the light, that it was good.” Light became synonymous with good, and darkness with evil. This principle works itself out through the pages of the scriptures until light is personified in the New Testament in Jesus Christ.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:5,14). The Word of God had again been spoken, this time His word was clothed with human flesh and blood. As the first thing created in the beginning was light, so in the new creation, the first creative activity was the unique Son of God. the light of the world.
It is the apostle Paul who summarizes these thoughts in his second letter to the Corinthians: “For God. who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, (referring to Genesis) hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6). This light we see in Jesus Christ. and in the way of life which he perfectly exemplified.
“Priceless treasure”
Paul continues: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” J. B. Phillips translates this verse: This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common jar—to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us.” The common jar is our human body, destined one day to be transformed into a perfect container.
If an electric light is put inside an earthenware jar. flaws show up as dark lines; so with us. As soon as we follow Jesus Christ and walk in the light of the gospel all the imperfections are magnified, and show as dark stains.
Our life story is depicted in the story of a man born blind, recorded in John 9. As we read through this chapter, we notice that the man born blind progresses from darkness to light, to a knowledge of God. In contrast, the Pharisees — who thought they knew. who thought they walked in God’s light — became people of darkness, ignorance and sin. The blind man is commanded to “Go wash in the pool of Siloam. He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” Notice the underlined words depict the steps on the road to salvation. In verse 34, we read how the Jews excommunicated this man from the synagogue, because they claimed he had been born in sin and because he was now a follower of Jesus Christ. When Jesus heard they had “cast him out” he went and found him. “Dost thou believe on the Son of God. ..Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped him (John 9:35,38). The man who represents you and me, the man born blind, followed the directions of Jesus and was healed and worshipped the Lord of life.
Surely the verse from Isaiah is applicable: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isa. 9:2).
This man followed Jesus Christ. There are many who walk in their own light; in other words, in shadow. They stumble over stones, debris and rocks until they finally step into the chasm of death; a six foot hole in the ground which they cannot see because they are walking in their own shadow, a shadow cast by God’s light behind them.
What is the answer? Surely to turn around and face God. Not like Adam, who turned from God. away from the light of God’s glory. More like Mary. who on that first day of the week when Jesus had come out of the darkness of the tomb, turned around to face Jesus. As long as she faced the tomb. her thoughts were of death, darkness, the chaotic, forbidding world without her Lord. She turned around and found her Lord. And he called her by name, her own personal name. As he did then to her, so he will do to us.
New life
The New Testament breathes new life into the pages of the Old Testament. The pages are amplified and explained. In the beginning God spoke; He organized and brought beauty out of chaos, light out of darkness. In the new creation, Jesus is the light of the world, able to bring light and life into the lives of men and women.
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all…But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:5,7). We must respond like the man born blind and believe in Him. For in the clear night air, we can look at the moon and see the reflected light of the sun. And we can aim at being reflectors of God’s light in this dark world.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One